UN appeals for European troops
UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations appealed to European countries yesterday to contribute to an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon that would have a balance of European and Muslim troops so that Israel and Lebanon will view it as legitimate.
Italy endorsed sending troops to Lebanon but did not commit itself to specific numbers, though Prime Minister Romano Prodi has said that the country could quickly send as many as 3,000 soldiers. Finland formally decided to send up to 250 peacekeepers to Lebanon, but said they would not be deployed until November.
Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said the news was promising but more European soldiers are needed for a vanguard force of 3,500 troops that the UN wants on the ground by Aug. 28 to enforce a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
``It's very important that Europe now steps forward," he said. ``We want this force that we deploy to have a kind of multinational, multilateral character so that it enjoys the confidence of both sides," he said.
The UN has been seeking ``a Muslim-European or European-Muslim force" because the combination provides ``a legitimacy that satisfies both sides," he said.
At a meeting of 49 nations on Thursday, the only countries to offer mechanized infantry battalions, which will be the front line of the expanded force, were three predominantly Muslim countries -- Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia -- and Nepal, which is predominantly Hindu.
Malaysia's foreign minister said yesterday that Israel should have no role in deciding which countries make up the force.
Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said that ``the resolution makes it very clear that the force will have to be agreed on by Lebanon and Israel. This is a force which the UN can compose but not impose."
``Israel has not ruled anybody out, and is not in any way ruling out Arab and Muslim countries," he said. ``It would, in fact, welcome the participation of Arab and Muslim countries. However, the participation of countries who are hostile to Israel or do not recognize Israel's right to exist would be unthinkable."
Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia do not have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Gillerman noted that the Malaysian foreign minister was quoted as saying recently that Hezbollah should be rearmed.
``I doubt whether Israel, Lebanon, or the Security Council would welcome the participation of soldiers whose mission is to rearm Hezbollah," he said.
Malloch Brown stressed that the final decision on the composition of the force will be made by the UN ``but as a matter of good form in peacekeeping you want a force which is broadly acceptable in its composition to both sides."
France, which commands the current 2,000-strong force known as UNIFIL, had been expected to make a significant new contribution that would form the backbone of the expanded force. But the country's president, Jacques Chirac, disappointed the UN and other countries by announcing that France would contribute just 200 combat engineers to its current 200-member contingent in Lebanon.
